Iron man armoed adventures
When his industrialist father Howard Stark dies in a plane crash after refusing to weaponize the Earth Mover at Obadiah Stane's behest, 16 year old genius Tony uses a high-tech suit of armor he has constructed and investigates a charge that Stane may have been involved in his father's death. As Iron Man, Tony spends his time stopping Stane's plans and saving the world from other villains such as Mandarin, Mr. Fix, Whiplash, A.I.M., Madame Masque, Living Laser, the Maggia, Firebrand, Controller, Crimson Dynamo, Blizzard, Killer Shrike, Unicorn, M.O.D.O.K., Ghost, Fin Fang Foom, Iron Monger, Black Knight, and Technovore. He is assisted in his crime fighting efforts with help from Jim Rhodes and Pepper Potts. Tony's activities as Iron Man usually result in his needing to make up excuses as to why he is constantly late or missing from school and other activities. In the first season, Black Panther, Hulk, and S.H.I.E.L.D. make guest appearances. Episodes Main article: List of Iron Man: Armored Adventures episodes Cast Principal cast Adrian Petriw - Anthony 'Tony' Stark/Iron Man Daniel Bacon - Jim 'Rhodey' Rhodes/War Machine Anna Cummer - Patricia 'Pepper' Potts Vincent Tong - Gene Khan/Mandarin Alistair Abell - Happy Hogan Mackenzie Gray - Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger Catherine Haggquist - Roberta Rhodes Guest cast David Kaye - Fin Fang Foom Alistair Abell6 - Black Knight Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman7 - Black Panther Louis Chirillo8 - Living Laser Michael Daingerfield9 - Unicorn Brian Drummond10 - Crimson Dynamo/O'Brian Mark Gibbon11 - Hulk Andrew Francis12 - Rick Jones Ron Halder - Professor Abraham Klein Fred Henderson - Howard Stark Peter Kelamis13 - Whiplash Michael Kopsa14 - Controller Donny Lucas15 - Mr. Fix Kristie Marsden - Whitney Stane/Madame Masque Mark Oliver16 - Crimson Dynamo/Ivan Vanko David Orth17 - Blizzard Ty Olsson18 - Killer Shrike Dean Redman19 - Nick Fury Russell Roberts20 - Count Nefaria Rebecca Shoicet - Tricia Lee Tockar21 - MODOK Vincent Tong - Zhang Tong Production Pre-release Months before the show's television debut, Marvel had a screening of the first episode of the series at the San Diego Comic-Con. 22 There was also a room where the public could meet, and talk with the Co-Producer Josh Fine and Head Writer Chris Yost among others involved in the production of the show.23 The trailer of the show was also released on Marvel's official website as well as numerous behind-the-scene and teaser trailers on the website in the weeks before the US television debut. 24 Theme song Popular rock band Rooney recorded the theme song to the series. 25 US residents can listen to it on the Nick Toons website here, while international residents can listen to it here. The song could be downloaded from the Teletoon website, provided one supplied the 'secret code'(tony) that came onscreen during the Canadian broadcast. 26 The music video for the theme song features clips of Rooney singing, along with clips of Iron Man from the show. This includes him fighting Unicorn among other villains. 27 Animation style The series is made primarily using Computer Generated Imagery, in a similar style to MTV's Spider-Man: The New Animated Series and Nicktoons Network's original series Skyland. The technique is similar to cel-shading (a common animation and videogame technique) and rotoscoping (such as in the film A Scanner Darkly), however the detail and resolution are lower. Comparison to previous Iron Man incarnations Origin See also: Iron Man#Origins In Iron Man: Armored Adventures, Tony Stark becomes Iron Man as a teenager, and Pepper Potts and Jim Rhodes are also teenagers. In mainstream Iron Man, Tony Stark becomes Iron Man later on in his life, and is a long time friend with Pepper, whereas in this series, Pepper and Tony have just met. Traditionally, Tony's parents were accidentally killed in a car crash, whereas in this series, Tony's father, Howard Stark, dies in the first episode in a plane crash. Tony also injures his heart in this crash, as opposed to being injured by a trap in war. He also invents the Iron Man armor at home. In previous incarnations, Tony invented a beta version of the suit to escape after being captured due to the trap explosion leaving him defenseless. Tony also invented his magnetic chest plate, whereas Ho Yinsen created it in previous versions. Due to Tony Stark never going to war and hence being captured and saved by Ho Yinsen, it thus makes the character Ho Yinsen redundant. Iron Man's armor Iron Man's original armor in the series See also: Iron Man's Armor Iron Man's original armor in the series is very similar to Iron Man's armor in the recent live action film. The notable differences are (most notably) the helmet design, his being armor less complex with less yellow. Apart from that, the armor is very similar in color. The armor appears to be convertible from its ability to spread over Tony from various parts he puts on. This armor generates a force field around Iron Man from his repulsors. There are also numerous alternate armor that Iron Man uses in special occasions, including the Silver Centurion Armor, the Stealth Armor and the Dynamo Buster Armor. DVD releases The pilot episode was released as a bonus feature in Wal-Mart's edition of the live-action Iron Man movie. A series-only series of DVDs and Blu-Ray Discs has been announced, with Volume 1 arriving in stores October 20th 2009. UK Volume One release contains 13 episodes on two disks, while the US Volume One release only contains 6 episodes. Reception The hour-long premiere of Iron Man: Armored Adventures broke Nicktoons Network's record of highest-rated original series by premiering with over 125,000 viewers with boys 6 - 11.28 Reviews of the pilot episode have been mixed. Some praise the series for its detailed and layered writing, strong continuity, and character designs. Entertainment Weekly gave the series debut a B+ grade, saying, "What could've been a clunky retrograde reboot works surprisingly well, thanks to some smart writing and stellar CG butt-kickery."29 Others do not like the "teen Tony" approach to the characters origin, which is drastically different from the original origin story. Some speculate this is due to comparisons between the series, and Jon Favreau's recent live action film, which was a more adult take on the character.30